Seinfeld
Season 5
DVD cover
Country of originUnited States
No. of episodes22
Release
Original networkNBC
Original releaseSeptember 16, 1993 (1993-09-16) –
May 19, 1994 (1994-05-19)
Season chronology
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Season 4
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Season 6
List of episodes

Season five of Seinfeld, an American comedy television series created by Jerry Seinfeld and Larry David, began airing on September 16, 1993, and concluded on May 19, 1994, on NBC.

Production

Seinfeld was produced by Castle Rock Entertainment and distributed by Columbia Pictures Television and Columbia TriStar Television and was aired on NBC in the United States. The executive producers were Larry David, George Shapiro, and Howard West with Tom Gammill and Max Pross as supervising producers. Bruce Kirschbaum was the executive consultant.[1] This season was directed by Tom Cherones.

The series was set predominantly in an apartment block on New York City's Upper West Side; however, the fifth season was shot and mostly filmed in CBS Studio Center in Studio City, California.[2] The show features Jerry Seinfeld as himself, and a host of Jerry's friends and acquaintances, which include George Costanza, Elaine Benes, and Kramer, portrayed by Jason Alexander, Julia Louis-Dreyfus and Michael Richards, respectively.[3]

Reception

Critical reception

The review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes reported a 100% approval rating with an average rating of 10/10, based on 8 critic reviews.[4]

Awards

Season five received 12 Emmy nominations and won two. Michael Richards won his second of three Emmys for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series. Janet Ashikaga won the Emmy for Outstanding Individual Achievement in Editing for a Series for the episode "The Opposite". Jerry Seinfeld was nominated for Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series. Jason Alexander was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actor in a Comedy Series, losing to co-star Michael Richards. Julia Louis-Dreyfus was nominated for Outstanding Supporting Actress in a Comedy Series. Marlee Matlin was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actress in a Comedy Series for playing Laura in the episode "The Lip Reader". Judge Reinhold was nominated for Outstanding Guest Actor in a Comedy Series for playing Aaron for the episodes "The Raincoats (part 1 and 2)". The episode "The Mango" was nominated for two Emmys: Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series (Lawrence H. Levy and Larry David), and Outstanding Directing in a Comedy Series (Tom Cherones). Larry David was also nominated for Outstanding Writing in a Comedy Series for the episode "The Puffy Shirt". Seinfeld was also nominated for Outstanding Sound Mixing in a Comedy Series or Special for the episode "The Bris". It was also nominated for Outstanding Comedy Series again, but lost to Frasier. Seinfeld was also nominated for four Golden Globe Awards and won three of them: Best Performance by an Actor in TV series-comedy (Jerry Seinfeld), Best Performance by an Actress in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV (Julia Louis- Dreyfus), and Best TV series-comedy/musical. Jason Alexander was nominated for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Series, Mini-Series or Motion Picture Made for TV. This season was also nominated for Directors Guild of America (Tom Cherones) for "The Mango", and won a Writers Guild of America Award (Lawrence H. Levy and Larry David) for "The Mango".

Nielsen ratings

Season five placed #3 in the Nielsen ratings below Home Improvement and 60 Minutes.[5]

Episodes

See also: List of Seinfeld episodes
No.
overall		No. in
season		TitleDirected byWritten byOriginal air date [6]Prod.
code [7]		US viewers
(millions)
651"The Mango"Tom CheronesStory by : Lawrence H. Levy
Teleplay by : Lawrence H. Levy and Larry David		September 16, 1993 (1993-09-16)50128.2[9]
George confides in Jerry about his lack of confidence performing in bed. Elaine tells Jerry that she faked all her orgasms when they were a couple; devastated, he begs her for another chance. Kramer gets banned from his favorite fruit shop and persuades Jerry to go in and buy for him, but the owner, played by Leonard Termo, sees through the scheme. George ends up buying Kramer's mangoes and discovers a cure for his impotence.[8]
662"The Puffy Shirt"Tom CheronesLarry DavidSeptember 23, 1993 (1993-09-23)50329.5[10]
George runs out of money and is forced to move back in with his nit-picky parents. Jerry and Elaine meet Kramer's new girlfriend, a clothes designer who speaks so quietly no one can hear her. Jerry later finds out that during their conversation she had asked him to wear her hideous new 'puffy shirt' for a homeless clothing charity appearance he's due to make on "The Today Show" – worse, without realizing it he had said yes to her. Meanwhile, George accidentally stumbles into a lucrative new, but ultimately short lived, career – hand modeling.
673"The Glasses"Tom CheronesTom Gammill & Max ProssSeptember 30, 1993 (1993-09-30)50228.7[11]
George's glasses are missing, so he has to buy a new pair. Kramer says he knows a place where he gets 30% discount if he just says his name. George goes to the place, and buys the glasses, but doesn't get the discount. Kramer soon forces the clerk, who Kramer had helped to stop eating so much sweets, to give George the discount by waving a candy bar in his face. In the same place, Elaine is bitten by a dog and becomes afraid of them. George believes he saw Jerry's girlfriend kissing another man, although he didn't have glasses. Jerry goes to any means necessary to find out the truth. Elaine begins having some side effects from the dog bite. Kramer buys Jerry a new air conditioner, which falls from Jerry's window onto the dog that bit Elaine.
684"The Sniffing Accountant"Tom CheronesLarry David & Jerry SeinfeldOctober 7, 1993 (1993-10-07)50428.4[12]
George's father gets him an interview as a brassiere salesman. Evidence points to Jerry's accountant being a cocaine user. Jerry, Kramer and Newman set up a sting to find out the truth. Elaine's new boyfriend is perfect except for his unwillingness to use exclamation points.
695"The Bris"Tom CheronesLarry CharlesOctober 14, 1993 (1993-10-14)50528.7[13]
Jerry, Elaine and George visit some friends and their new baby at the hospital where Jerry and Elaine are asked to be godparents. Kramer, arriving late, enters the wrong room and sees a "Pig Man". Elaine hires an eccentric mohel for the baby's bris, during which Jerry gets injured and has to be taken to the hospital. While there, George confronts the hospital's manager about a man who jumped to his death and landed on his car and Kramer helps the Pig Man escape from the hospital.
706"The Lip Reader"Tom CheronesCarol LeiferOctober 28, 1993 (1993-10-28)50631.0[14]
Jerry goes to a tennis tournament and starts dating a deaf lineswoman (Marlee Matlin) who can read lips. George recruits her and Kramer (who knows sign language) to help him spy on his ex-girlfriend at a party. Elaine pretends she can't hear to avoid talking to an annoying limousine driver.
717"The Non-Fat Yogurt"Tom CheronesLarry DavidNovember 4, 1993 (1993-11-04)50731.1[15]
Jerry, Elaine and George are obsessed with a non-fat yogurt, but they begin to think it isn't non-fat at all when the three of them gain weight. They send a sample to a lab to see if it is really non-fat. George has a rivalry with Lloyd Braun, the advisor to the up-for-reelection mayor David Dinkins, and to make it even worse Elaine goes out with him. Elaine costs Dinkins the election by proposing that everyone wears name tags. The non-fat yogurt is revealed to have fat. Kramer's sexual encounter with a chemist causes a blood test being done on mayoral candidate Rudy Giuliani's blood to show a false result. Jerry accidentally says the word "fuck" in front of a kid that can't stop repeating that word, in good or bad situations. He tells the kid to stop saying it, but he said it again to him. In the end he ruined his dad's business and the kid says it to him.
728"The Barber"Tom CheronesAndy RobinNovember 11, 1993 (1993-11-11)50829.7[16]
Jerry gets tired of his old barber and tries to replace him. However, he panics and decides to take a final haircut with his old barber, who gives him a bad haircut that George thinks makes him look like a five-year-old. Jerry decides that he will fix his hair with the new barber. Jerry's old barber becomes suspicious and bribes Newman to confirm his hunch. George is afraid that he will not get his job when his boss couldn't repeat the final words he was going to say. He decides to hide from his boss and secretly start working there, until he is ratted out by one of his co-workers.
739"The Masseuse"Tom CheronesPeter MehlmanNovember 18, 1993 (1993-11-18)50927.7[17]
Jerry starts dating a masseuse who refuses to give him a massage, even though she has given one to Kramer. George is worried that Jerry's girlfriend does not like him. Jerry tries to convince her to give him a massage, but he fails. They eventually break up. Elaine is dating Joel Rifkin, who has the same name as a serial killer. His possible name change is a source of heated debate.
7410"The Cigar Store Indian"Tom CheronesTom Gammill & Max ProssDecember 9, 1993 (1993-12-09)51029.6[18]
Jerry gives Elaine a cigar store Indian, thus offending a Native American woman in whom he is interested. He tries to make peace with her, but Kramer ruins the moment when he talks about the cigar store Indian. She eventually gives him another chance, and this time Jerry is more careful than he was before. The evening ends in disaster when he accidentally says something bad about Native Americans; they break up.
7511"The Conversion"Tom CheronesBruce KirschbaumDecember 16, 1993 (1993-12-16)51128.3[19]
George's girlfriend breaks up with him because he is not Latvian Orthodox. George tries to get her back by joining the religion. Meanwhile, Kramer discovers that he has "kavorka", a Latvian term for the lure of the animal, only in this case he attracts women to him – which nearly gets him into trouble when a nun is attracted to him.
7612"The Stall"Tom CheronesLarry CharlesJanuary 6, 1994 (1994-01-06)51235.0[20]
Elaine gets upset with Jerry's girlfriend (without knowing that she is his girlfriend) when they fight over a piece of toilet paper. Elaine, however, swears she could identify her voice anywhere. Elaine's boyfriend shares a bond with George and Kramer, which eventually ends in disaster when George and Kramer accidentally let go of his rope while rock climbing. Kramer is convinced that the voice of Jerry's new girlfriend resembles 'Erika', a voice on a phone sex line that he has been calling. The woman is indeed revealed to be Jerry's girlfriend. Elaine recognizes her voice and beats her to the bathroom to take away her toilet paper.
7713"The Dinner Party"Tom CheronesLarry DavidFebruary 3, 1994 (1994-02-03)51433.0[21]
Jerry, George, Elaine and Kramer are invited to a dinner party, but they encounter problems along the way. Elaine and Jerry are stuck in a bakery trying to get the perfect cake; George and Kramer encounter problems at a liquor store when they are double parked in. In the end, they drive to the party, hand over the cake and the liquor to the party, but leave immediately after they hand them over.
7814"The Marine Biologist"Tom CheronesRon Hauge & Charlie RubinFebruary 10, 1994 (1994-02-10)51335.0[22]
Jerry meets up an old friend from college and lies that George works as a marine biologist. Kramer goes to the beach to play golf, which he later regrets when he is only able to hit one ball. George gets a date with Diane on the beach where they discuss what marine biologists do. Elaine has a calamitous encounter – twice – with a famous Russian writer and flying electronic devices. In the middle of George's date with Diane at the beach, people gather around a dying whale; George, supposedly being a marine biologist, is asked to save the whale. George dramatically retells his struggle and reveals what had been causing the whale pain – a golf ball.
7915"The Pie"Tom CheronesTom Gammill & Max ProssFebruary 17, 1994 (1994-02-17)51525.4[23]
Jerry is upset when his girlfriend refuses to try the pie at Monk's. Kramer, suffering from an itchy back, sees a mannequin in a department store which looks just like Elaine. Elaine and George go to the store and notice that it's true. George schemes to buy a 1/2 price suit there, but becomes concerned for his interview when he learns that it makes a "swoosh" when he moves. Elaine and Jerry return to the store, and Elaine suddenly kidnaps "herself". The maker of the mannequin is revealed as the strange man on the subway who took and cut up George's father's TV guide.
8016"The Stand-In"Tom CheronesLarry DavidFebruary 24, 1994 (1994-02-24)51625.4[24]
Jerry learns from his friend Al Netche that another friend, Fulton, is in the hospital and "could use a good laugh". He becomes so nervous to do a good job, he ends up bombing and is afraid that he causes Fulton's condition to worsen. He tries again with new stand-up material, at which Fulton can't stop laughing, and ends up dying from it. George plans to break up with his girlfriend because they have nothing to talk about. However, Al told his girlfriend that George couldn't commit and would hurt her, so George keeps the relationship going to spite Al. Jerry sets up Elaine with his friend Phil Titola; they have a great time, until Phil takes it out. Kramer and his "little person" friend Mickey get jobs as stand-ins for All My Children, and Kramer suggests that Mickey put lifts in his shoes to keep up with a growing eight-year-old. His "heightening" is found out, and he is ostracized by other "little person" actors.
8117"The Wife"Tom CheronesPeter MehlmanMarch 17, 1994 (1994-03-17)51730.7[25]
Jerry's girlfriend (Courteney Cox) makes him pretend they are married so that she can get a dry-cleaning discount; the pretence leads to tensions in their relationship. Kramer also takes advantage of the discount, but can't sleep without his quilt. Meanwhile, at the health club George is caught urinating in the shower by a man whom Elaine would like to date. Her dilemma: does she side with George or with the prospective boyfriend?
8218"The Raincoats"Tom CheronesTom Gammill & Max Pross and Larry David & Jerry SeinfeldApril 28, 1994 (1994-04-28)51929.6[26]
8319520
Jerry's parents visit from Florida and Morty and Kramer go into business together selling belt-less raincoats. Elaine dates a "close-talker" who takes to Jerry's parents a little too well for her liking. George tries to sell his father's old vacation clothes and is talked into joining a Bigger Brother program. Jerry is desperate for time alone with his girlfriend, Rachel, but his parents make things difficult. Newman reports Jerry to his parents for making out with Rachel during Schindler's List. Morty and Kramer's raincoats scheme goes awry when Rudy, the owner of the used clothes store, refuses to buy them. George tries to get his father's clothes back so he and his mother will go on vacation.
8420"The Fire"Tom CheronesLarry CharlesMay 5, 1994 (1994-05-05)51827.6[27]
George is dating a woman who has a kid. While at his birthday party, George smells smoke and knocks all the women and children out of the way to get out of the fire. Elaine is not happy about having to work on Kramer's coffee table book and is passed over for a promotion when Toby, Kramer's publisher, is injured and is promoted out of pity. Toby heckles Jerry during one of his sets, which causes problems between Jerry and Kramer.
8521"The Hamptons"Tom CheronesPeter Mehlman & Carol LeiferMay 12, 1994 (1994-05-12)52224.5[28]
The four friends spend a weekend in the Hamptons visiting a couple and their phenomenally ugly baby. George's girlfriend sunbathes topless and he is the only one to miss the spectacle. Jerry's girlfriend walks in on George as he is getting changed after swimming in cold water; his 'shrinkage' causes her some amusement. Meanwhile, Elaine meets a doctor who seems to find everything 'breathtaking', and Kramer brings home a suspiciously large lobster catch.
8622"The Opposite"Tom CheronesAndy Cowan and Larry David & Jerry SeinfeldMay 19, 1994 (1994-05-19)52130.1[29]
George, egged on by Jerry, decides that, since his instincts are all wrong, he will do the opposite of what they tell him; sure enough, he soon finds himself with a beautiful girlfriend and a great job. Meanwhile, everything starts to go wrong for Elaine. Jerry breaks even at everything, and Kramer seems bound for literary success with his coffee table book about coffee tables.

References

  1. ^ "The Seinfeld Crew and Credits at Seinfeld Official Site". Sony Pictures. Archived from the original on July 23, 2009. Retrieved April 30, 2008.
  2. ^ "The Stock Tip episode at Seinfeld Official Site". Sony Pictures. Archived from the original on May 13, 2008. Retrieved April 29, 2008.
  3. ^ "Seinfeld and nihilism". December 3, 1999. Archived from the original on December 17, 2007. Retrieved April 29, 2008.
  4. ^ Seinfeld: Season 5, Rotten Tomatoes, archived from the original on February 20, 2022, retrieved May 19, 2022
  5. ^ "Nielson Ratings Top 20:1993–1994". angelfire.com. Archived from the original on April 20, 2008. Retrieved April 22, 2008.
  6. ^ "Seinfeld Episodes | TVGuide.com". TV Guide. Archived from the original on May 5, 2008. Retrieved March 20, 2008.
  7. ^ "Seinfeld Prod. Codes for all seasons". epguide.com. Archived from the original on August 5, 2008. Retrieved March 23, 2008.
  8. ^ Barnes, Mike (November 2, 2012). "Character Actor Leonard Termo Dies at 77". The Hollywood Reporter. Archived from the original on November 10, 2012. Retrieved November 22, 2012.
  9. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. September 22, 1993. p. 3D.
  10. ^ Gable, Donna (September 29, 1993). "'Dave's World,' 'Harts' help CBS to victory". Life. USA Today. p. 3D.
  11. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. October 6, 1993. p. 3D.
  12. ^ Gable, Donna (October 13, 1993). "New shows pick up steam in ABC win". Life. USA Today. p. 3D.
  13. ^ Graham, Jefferson; Gable, Donna (October 20, 1993). "'Home Improvement' powers to No. 1". Life. USA Today. p. 3D.
  14. ^ DeRosa, Robin (November 3, 1993). "ABC usurps CBS as No. 1". Life. USA Today. p. 3D.
  15. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. November 10, 1993. p. 3D.
  16. ^ DeRosa, Robin (November 17, 1993). "Walters gives ABC a special boost". Life. USA Today. p. 3D.
  17. ^ DeRosa, Robin (November 24, 1993). "CBS sweeps back to top". Life. USA Today. p. 3D.
  18. ^ DeRosa, Robin (December 15, 1993). "Midler's 'Gypsy' coming up roses for CBS". Life. USA Today. p. 3D.
  19. ^ DeRosa, Robin (December 22, 1993). "ABC on top for 2nd week". Life. USA Today. p. 3D.
  20. ^ DeRosa, Robin (January 12, 1994). "'Improvement' leads ABC charge". Life. USA Today. p. 3D.
  21. ^ DeRosa, Robin (February 9, 1994). "Lilith brings ratings to 'Frasier'". Life. USA Today. p. 3D.
  22. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. February 16, 1994. p. 3D.
  23. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. February 23, 1994. p. 3D.
  24. ^ Moore, Dennis (March 2, 1994). "CBS' Olympic sweep". Life. USA Today. p. 3D.
  25. ^ DeRosa, Robin (March 23, 1994). "Wednesday wins for ABC". Life. USA Today. p. 3D.
  26. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. May 4, 1994. p. 3D.
  27. ^ DeRosa, Robin (May 11, 1994). "ABC keeps hammering away". Life. USA Today. p. 3D.
  28. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. May 18, 1994. p. 3D.
  29. ^ "Nielsen ratings". Life. USA Today. May 25, 1994. p. 3D.

External links

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